The former Central Parking headquarters on 21st Avenue South is about to undergo a multimillion-dollar renovation designed to create a modern look the owner hopes will attract new office tenants.

Design work is underway and the renovations are expected to start in early fall, said Edie Johnson, a partner in The Carell Family LLC.

The building at 2401 21st Ave. S. has sat vacant since April 1, when the sole tenant SP+ — formerly Standard Parking — moved its Nashville support office to a building in the MetroCenter business park.

Johnson said the Carell family decided to make a "substantial investment" to keep the building as offices after considering options that included ground leasing the property to developers of apartments or condos. "We've had a lot of interest in the building — had people looking at it to possibly lease it or buy it," she added.

Architect David Johnson of Johnson Johnson Crabtree Architects is working on the design. "It's an incredible location — close to Vanderbilt, close to Music Row — and the intent is to renovate it back down to the structure so that it's competitive with any other spaces on West End or in that area." he said. "It's going to be redone from top to bottom."

Specifically, the architect said the building would get a new roof, and the electrical, heating, air-conditioning and other mechanical systems will be completely redone to make it more energy efficient and to support newer technologies. Many of the interior walls will be taken down, all bathrooms redone and new lighting fixtures installed. In addition, many of the rocks on the outside of the building will be removed and re-stuccoed.

Nashville-based Phipps Construction Co. will be the general contractor. Edie Johnson expects the building will be ready for occupancy in six months to a year. Nashville broker Dick Fleming of Cushman & Wakefield|Cornerstone will be the leasing agent.

For decades, the nearly 40,000-square-foot building was corporate home to Central Parking, which Edie Johnson's now-deceased father, Monroe J. Carell Jr., co-founded and grew into the nation's largest parking lot operator. After acquiring Central Parking two years ago, Chicago-based SP+ continued leasing the building from the Carell family until it moved out. "Central had been in there so long, it just really needs updating," she said.

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